The strike by employees of the Paris Opera to protest against “chronic understaffing” ended on Tuesday, December 24, following a memorandum of understanding signed with management, AFP learned from sources concordant. “The strike is lifted and the shows Rigoletto (Verdi-Claus Guth) and Play (Alexander Ekman), threatened by a strike notice running until the end of the year, took place on Tuesday evening at the Opéra Bastille and the Opéra Garnier,” the management clarified.
“The strike notice which ran until December 31 was lifted following this memorandum of understanding and a vote by employees in general assemblies in the two theaters,” confirmed Régis Cochennec of the Sud Spectacle union. Started last Thursday by the employees, the strike ended Tuesday “following negotiations which resulted in several advances,” said this union official.
The strikers denounced “bloodless” services due to a policy of reducing the number of positions which “brings the opera to its knees”, according to Régis Cochennec.
They obtained “that 50 positions vacant since 2022 be filled by June 30, 2025 and a reduction to five positions of the gap between the employment ceiling of 1,484 positions, imposed on the Opera by Parliament and the sub-ceiling maison which only has 1,459 full-time equivalent jobs worked,” he explained. This gap was 25 positions until now.
According to Régis Cochennec, management has also committed to “reinforcement of seven fixed-term positions in the event of work overload and large productions”. The employees and their representatives also obtained “a meeting on January 8 at the Ministry of Culture, the supervisory authority, from which they intend to request an increase in the employment ceiling”, according to this union representative.
